Insane video shows metal sheets impaled through an SUV’s windshield. It happened early Thursday morning, during rush hour, and miraculously the driver survived.

The metal rods didn't slide off the truck either. The driver ran right into them.

Amazingly, the driver was left with serious, but non-life-threatening head injuries. A dog in the vehicle at the time was uninjured.

“It’s a miracle that the person in the SUV survived and it was the grace of God that he survived,” said Alberto Gutier with the Arizona Governor's Office of Highway Safety. “Because when you see the actual photos and you see the actual metal, inside through the window and almost reaching the headrest, means that it was 6-7 feet in length beyond the bed of the truck.”

As a driver, when you see a car ahead of you, how close is too close to follow? Gutier has advice for all drivers.

“You have to figure out a way that if you break, how far forward you’re going to get, and of course, that includes reduced speed,” he said.

If the vehicle in front of you is carrying a load that reaches far out beyond the vehicle, like in this case, by law, they must have a red tag to alert other drivers.

“They talk about red because red is more visible,” said Gutier. “It’s danger -- red symbolizes danger and so putting it behind a vehicle, you’re going to see it.”

In this case, DPS says the corrugated metal had a green flag attached, but the law requires a red one. A DPS spokesman tells us so far they haven’t issued any citation to the driver of the flatbed. There have been questions about whether those sheets of metal were secured on the bed correctly. DPS says they were secured properly and they did not shift at all.

DPS is in the process of interviewing witnesses, before investigators make a final determination on what led up to the crash.

“I think if there is less than a car space … than I think that’s too close,” said Sergagi Maloruc, a Valley driver.

And if the vehicle ahead of you is carrying a big load of equipment?

“I think you should be at least two or three … you should have a safe distance,” he said.

Or move over all together. Shattered glass and a smashed front bumper can be seen in the aftermath video of the SUV.